Rural India is particularly hard hit by the scarcity of currency notes induced by the government’s demonetisation scheme.

Most people transact almost exclusively in cash, bank branches are few and far between and newly minted notes vend their way to rural branches very slowly. People struggle to make payments, except when some unethical entrepreneurs offer to accept old notes at a discount of anything up to 30%.

We urged the government on Saturday to bring cooperative banks into the network of banks where old notes can be exchanged and deposited. Today, we urge the government to devise means to put to use the mobile payment infrastructure that the banking system has built up around the electronic backbone provided by the National Payments Corporation of India.

Even without smartphones, people can send the money in their bank accounts, if they sign up for mobile banking, to other people with bank accounts, using a communication protocol called Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, which enables a two-way connection between the consumer’s phone and the telecom service provider’s computers.

About 50 banks are on this platform. The remitter must acquire a seven-digit Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) and a Mobile Personal Identification Number (M-PIN).

Some details on the payee are also needed, naturally: his phone number and MMID, his account number and IFS Code or just his Aadhaar number.

Mobile wallets operated by telecom service providers, such as Airtel Money, can simplify matters further. And things will get even simpler when telcos that have obtained payment bank licences launch their operations. All hurdles in their path must be cleared.

To get rural folk to use mobile banking will call for some extensive education. Necessity is a great teacher.

That said, it would be useful if political parties and their associated youth and other organisations act as volunteers who guide people on the use of mobile banking. This will not remove all the strain arising from the disappearance of cash. But it would ease the pain for many.

This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Economic Times.